VOA Sues Overseer USAGM To Restore Operations After Trump Order

A group that includes six Voice of America (VOA) journalists has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration and other officials accusing them of illegally shutting down several publicly funded broadcasters.

The lawsuit, filed on March 21 in the Southern District of New York, charges that the Trump administration has taken “a chainsaw” approach to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) through an executive order signed a week earlier.

The order gutted seven federal agencies, including USAGM, telling them to “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”

Hours later, VOA staff were put on administrative leave and its premises shut.

Many media rights watchdogs and analysts have said the decision halting the operations of VOA and other publicly funded broadcasters will embolden authoritarians around the globe with the loss of “a critical lifeline” of information for their populations.

“What is happening to the VOA Journalists is not just the chilling of First Amendment speech; it is a government shutdown of journalism, a prior restraint that kills content before it can be created,” the filing says.

USAGM Acting Director Victor Morales and Special Adviser Kari Lake, are named in the lawsuit, which says the Trump administration’s moves to close the USAGM violated the First Amendment rights of VOA’s employees.

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It also asks for the court to restore USAGM-grantee news outlets and that funding for grantees, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA) and the Middle Eastern Broadcast Network (MBN), resume. Those outlets had their grants terminated the same day as VOA was shuttered.

“Defendants have violated all of these laws by closing USAGM and ceasing altogether the business of gathering and disseminating news and opinion via VOA and its sister service Radio y Television Marti, as well as its grantee-affiliates RFE/RL, RFA, and MBN. Defendants’ actions are unconstitutional and unlawful; they must cease immediately,” the complaint says.

'Tragic Attack On Democracy'

In addition to the six VOA journalists, plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), The NewsGuild-CWA, the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

David Seide, senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a nonpartisan civil rights defense and whistle-blower protection organization that is representing the VOA journalists in the case, called the administration’s moves “another tragic attack on democracy.”

"Over eight decades, VOA and its sister organizations have been renowned, evidenced by the over 400 million viewers, listeners, and readers who tune in every day," he said. "That reputation is now in tatters. Our lawsuit is intended to stop the bleeding.”

Lake, a vocal Trump supporter, did not respond immediately to the news, but around the same time as it was published, she wrote in a post on X that when The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, CBS, and 60 Minutes reached out for interviews this week, she declined.

“I do not do interviews with disreputable ‘news’ outlets,” she wrote.

Many Republicans, including Trump and Lake, have alleged that VOA and the other broadcasters are infected by left-wing propaganda, an accusation its operators say isn’t supported by the facts.

RFE/RL on March 18 filed a suit against the USAGM, Lake, and Morales, to block their attempt to terminate RFE/RL’s federal grant, which provides the broadcaster with funds to operate.

The complaint argues that denying the funds Congress has appropriated for RFE/RL violates federal laws and the US Constitution, which gives Congress exclusive authority over federal spending.

The suit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

"This is not the time to cede terrain to the propaganda and censorship of America's adversaries," RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said.

"We believe the law is on our side and that the celebration of our demise by despots around the world is premature," he added.